Skip to the story | Text edition home | Full site

Reported by us | South Coast

From Fort Phoenix to Battleship Cove, the South Coast honors those who served

An SC360 Special for Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, on the harbor forts, the flag and the battleship that hold the South Coast's memory of service, and the places to say thank you today.

By the SC360 Community Desk | Published Nov. 11, 2026 | Last verified Nov. 11, 2026, 9:19 a.m. ET

SOUTH COAST On this Veterans Day, the South Coast pauses to thank the men and women who answered the call, and the families who kept a light on until they came home. At 11 a.m. on Taunton Green, in the memorial grove in Dartmouth and at Old Landing in Marion, neighbors will gather to say it out loud. Long before there was a Veterans Day, this stretch of coast was sending its own to serve, and the places where that history was made are still here for us to visit.

The walk begins at the mouth of Fairhaven's harbor, at an old fort that would not stay down.

The fort that rose from its ashes

In 1775, after the fighting at Lexington and Concord, the British warship Falcon came into Buzzards Bay hunting for food, according to the fort's 1972 nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Capt. Nathaniel Pope and 25 local militiamen fitted out a sloop called the Success, captured two sloops the Falcon had taken and marched their prisoners off to the Taunton jail, in what the nomination counts among the first naval engagements of the Revolution. The militia then built a fort on the northwestern end of Sconticut Neck and finished it in 1777.

The harbor had become what Sir Henry Clinton called a "noted rendezvous for privateers," and on Sept. 5, 1778, it paid for its daring. More than 4,000 British troops under Maj. Gen. Grey landed at Clark's Point on the New Bedford side, destroyed warehouses and every one of the more than 70 ships in the harbor, then crossed the Acushnet River and came down the Fairhaven shore. Militia under Maj. Israel Fearing put up what fight they could, far outnumbered. The raiders found the fort deserted, burned its barracks, broke its cannon and blew up its magazine, and by midday on Sept. 6 they were gone.

The militia began rebuilding at once, and so quickly, the nomination says, that the fort seemed to "rise from its ashes." They called it Fort Phoenix. Its horseshoe of brick walls topped with granite still sits among the smooth boulders of the point, about 60 feet above the water, and the town has cared for it since 1922.

The stone fort at Clark's Point

Across the harbor, the point where Grey's men came ashore became New Bedford's own guardhouse. The federal government bought land there in the late 1850s for a granite fort, but the Civil War began before its walls were up, according to the Fort Taber-Fort Rodman Historical Association, which keeps the fort's history and runs the military museum beside it. Mayor Isaac C. Taber and the City Council did not wait for help. The city built an earthwork fort of its own, finished and armed it on May 11, 1861, and named it Fort Taber for the mayor.

New Bedford and Fairhaven together raised four Home and Coast Guard companies and an artillery company to man Fort Taber and Fort Phoenix, the association writes, and that May the New Bedford Morning Mercury invited residents out to the point to see the "bristling guns and neatly uniformed troops." When the city's Stone Fleet sailed that year to block Southern harbors, the guns at Fort Taber sent it off with a roar.

In 1898 the Army named the whole reservation for one of the city's own, Lt. Col. William Logan Rodman of New Bedford, the association says. Rodman was leading the 38th Massachusetts in the assault on Port Hudson, Louisiana, on May 27, 1863, when, as the regiment's 1866 history tells it, he rose "to give or receive an order," was struck in the breast by a bullet and fell lifeless.

The point kept watch through the wars that followed. Coast artillery troops arrived in the late summer of 1940 and lived in tents until their barracks were finished, the association writes, and after Pearl Harbor they stood watch with every other fort on the coast. The Army declared the fort obsolete in 1947, according to its 1973 National Register nomination, and people in New Bedford still call the old stone fort by the mayor's name, Fort Taber.

A New Bedford flag bearer

Less than two months after Rodman fell, a New Bedford man named William H. Carney picked up the flag of the 54th Massachusetts at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863, and carried it through the fighting. His Medal of Honor, presented May 23, 1900, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, reads that he "grasped the flag, led the way to the parapet, and planted the colors thereon," then "brought off the flag, under a fierce fire in which he was twice severely wounded." He rests in Oak Grove Cemetery in New Bedford. We told his story in full in our Special on Sgt. Carney and the flag that never touched the ground.

Big Mamie comes home

The battleship that sits at Battleship Cove in Fall River was a Massachusetts ship from the start. Her keel was laid at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy on July 20, 1939, she was launched on Sept. 23, 1941, and she was commissioned on May 12, 1942, according to her 1985 National Historic Landmark nomination by the National Park Service. Her crew called her Big Mamie, the museum says.

Off Casablanca on Nov. 8, 1942, she fired the first American 16-inch shell of the war, and off Kamaishi, Japan, in 1945 she fired the last, according to Battleship Cove. In between she fought across the Pacific, from the Gilbert and Marshall islands to Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the Park Service says she earned 11 battle stars. When the Navy struck her from its list in 1962 and ordered her sold for scrap, the men who had served aboard her, who had held a reunion every year since 1945, set out to save her. With help from Massachusetts schoolchildren, the museum says, they raised the money to bring her to Fall River in June 1965, and she opened to visitors two months later, her big guns trained fore and aft "in the posture of peace."

Big Mamie is a memorial as well as a museum ship. Battleship Cove is home to the state's official memorial to every Bay Stater killed in service in World War II, kept aboard the Massachusetts herself, and the museum counts more than 13,000 Massachusetts men and women of all branches among the dead. Aboard the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., also at the cove, are the state's official memorials to the nearly 1,000 Massachusetts service members lost in the Korean War and the more than 1,300 lost in Vietnam, and the museum also keeps memorials to those lost in the Persian Gulf War and on Sept. 11, 2001. The museum posts lists of the Massachusetts dead from World War II, Korea and Vietnam on its memorial pages.

Veterans and active duty service members with ID get in free today, Wednesday, Nov. 11. The hours are in our story on what is open for Veterans Day.

Inland, in Taunton

In World War II the South Coast's service reached well inland, to the farms and woods in the northwest corner of Taunton where the Army built Camp Myles Standish, the staging area for the Boston Port of Embarkation and the last stop in the country for many soldiers headed to war from Boston, as we told in our Special on Camp Myles Standish.

Where to say thank you today

Thirteen parades, ceremonies and gatherings honor veterans across the region today, including ceremonies at 11 a.m. in Taunton, Plymouth, Dartmouth and Marion and Fall River's parade at 1:30 p.m., and Bristol Community College's veterans center holds an Armistice observance at 11 a.m. on its Fall River campus, marking the end of World War I. Times, places and the closings are in our Veterans Day listings.

Wherever the day takes you, to the brick walls of Fort Phoenix, the granite at Clark's Point or the teak decks of Big Mamie, take a moment to thank those who have stood watch over this stretch of coast, from the militia of 1778 to the veteran who lives down the street, and the families who waited at home for them. To each of them, from all of us at South Coast 360, thank you for your service.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.

Notes

Every fact about Fort Phoenix comes from its 1972 National Register nomination. The history of the fort at Clark's Point comes from its 1973 National Register nomination and from the Fort Taber-Fort Rodman Historical Association; where the two differ on the year the land was bought (1857 or 1858), the story says the late 1850s. Lt. Col. William Logan Rodman's commission and death come from the 38th Massachusetts regimental history published in 1866. Sgt. William H. Carney's citation comes from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. The battleship's dates come from its 1985 National Park Service landmark nomination, and its war record, its rescue and the memorials from Battleship Cove's own pages. Today's ceremonies come from our Veterans Day listings, built from the towns' and organizers' notices. We read them on Nov. 11, 2026, and checked each date and weekday against a calendar. Not heard: no one was contacted for this Special.

Corrections

No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.

Sources (14)

  1. Fort Phoenix, Fairhaven, National Register of Historic Places Inventory, Nomination Form (NRIS 72000120, entered Nov. 9, 1972) | National Park Service, NPGalleryRead in full from the scanned form (https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/a966f9b2-1b94-445e-9858-e3505214fe23): 1775 Falcon and the sloop Success, Capt. Nathaniel Pope and 25 militiamen, prisoners to the Taunton jail, fort begun on Sconticut Neck and finished 1777, Clinton's "noted rendezvous for privateers," the Sept. 5 and 6, 1778, raid under Gen. Grey, Maj. Israel Fearing, "rise from its ashes," description, 1828 cannon, town ownership since 1922, 1950 cement covering. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  2. Fort Taber District, New Bedford, National Register of Historic Places Inventory, Nomination Form (NRIS 73001954), prepared by Gerald W. Butler, curator, Fort Taber Historical Association, Jan. 22, 1973 | National Park Service, NPGalleryRead in full from the scanned form (https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/ae28317a-a500-4613-a77c-49cf8b05e73e): construction under Henry M. Robert, Marine Park from 1892, the Army's return in 1898, five batteries built 1898 to 1901, declared obsolete in 1947, later training use. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  3. History of the Fort | Fort Taber / Fort Rodman Historical Association, Inc.Land bought at Clark's Point, granite from Fall River and Sullivan, Maine, Mayor Isaac C. Taber and the May 11, 1861, earthwork battery, the guard companies and the Morning Mercury line, the Stone Fleet send-off, Capt. Henry Martyn Robert, work stopped in 1871, the 1898 naming for Lt. Col. William Logan Rodman, Battery Milliken and Lt. Alfred W. Milliken, the 1940 garrison. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  4. George W. Powers, The Story of the Thirty Eighth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers (Cambridge, Dakin and Metcalf, 1866) | Project Gutenberg, from Internet Archive scansTitle page dated 1866. Lt. Col. William L. Rodman of New Bedford, commissioned Dec. 4, 1862, killed at Port Hudson May 27, 1863; account of his death in the chapter on the battle of May 27. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  5. William Harvey Carney | Congressional Medal of Honor SocietyAction July 18, 1863, Fort Wagner, S.C.; citation; presentation May 23, 1900; entered service at New Bedford; burial at Oak Grove Cemetery, New Bedford. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  6. USS Massachusetts (BB 59), National Register of Historic Places Inventory, Nomination Form, War in the Pacific Ship Study, prepared by Harry A. Butowsky, National Park Service, 1985 | NPGalleryKeel laid July 20, 1939, launched Sept. 23, 1941, commissioned May 12, 1942, at Fore River, Quincy; 11 battle stars; stricken in 1962; teak decks; owner USS Massachusetts Memorial Committee, Inc. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  7. USS Massachusetts (BB-59), Historical Overview | Battleship CoveBig Mamie, the first and last American 16-inch shells of the war at Casablanca on Nov. 8, 1942, and Kamaishi in 1945, Pacific campaigns, struck in 1962, the crew's reunions since 1945, schoolchildren's help, June 1965 arrival, opening two months later, "in the posture of peace." Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  8. WW II Memorial | Battleship CoveThe state's official memorial to Bay Staters killed in service in World War II, aboard USS Massachusetts; more than 13,000 Massachusetts citizens of all branches. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  9. Korean War Memorial | Battleship CoveThe state's official Korean War memorial, aboard USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.; nearly 1,000 Massachusetts dead. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  10. Vietnam War Memorial | Battleship CoveThe state's official Vietnam War memorial, aboard USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.; more than 1,300 Massachusetts dead. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  11. Memorials | Battleship CoveOfficial memorials for World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War and Sept. 11. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  12. Battleship Cove, showing the USS Massachusetts and the USS Joseph P. Kennedy. Fall River, Massachusetts | Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs DivisionLead photo; between 1980 and 2006; no known restrictions on publication. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  13. No school Wednesday: veterans get into Battleship Cove free, and the zoo and Whaling Museum stay open | South Coast 360Our live story, from Battleship Cove's Veterans Day listing: free admission for active duty members and veterans with ID, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
  14. Veterans Day on the South Coast: parades, ceremonies and what is closed or changed on Nov. 11 | South Coast 360Our live listings, from the towns' and organizers' own notices: 13 events, the 11 a.m. ceremonies, Fall River's 1:30 p.m. parade, the Bristol Community College Armistice observance. Read Nov. 11, 2026.

This story on the full site